What Comes After
by Ghuerswe
Summary: Years have passed and the Smash Bros have disbanded. Lucas, having been a child at the time, was taken care of by Solid Snake. After Snake passes away, Lucas tries to get a hold of all the smashers for the funeral. In the end only one person shows up, and she's a day late.


**A/N: This was something I felt should be thought about. What would happen to our favorite smashers if the smash tournament ended for good? Where would they go and who would they become?**

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Smash was once a grand organization meant to protect and entertain the public. Master Hand and Crazy Hand crafted a legion of fighters using various heroes and villains from surrounding worlds as a base. Over time these creations became self aware and came to be their own individual, separate from the source material. The general public adored the spectacles put on by the "Smashers" for years, that is until the morality of watching various contestants fight each other to near death came into question. After that, the organization was ripped apart and dwindled to nothing. The hands couldn't destroy their creations, leading to the assimilation of Smashers into the crowd.

Lucas, now in his early twenties, had all reason to believe he'd never see anybody he once knew. At first he lived with Snake, surprisingly enough the war vet offered to take custody of the young psychic. It wasn't long before the blond learned of his new guardian's affliction. He tried to get all of the old Smashers together for the funeral, but ultimately no one showed up.

The morning after the lonely ceremony, Lucas took off to spend a few bucks at the bar down the street. He took a shower, whipped on a red t-shirt and ripped blue jeans, then was out the door of his apartment. Some passers-by noticed how depressed the young man was, solely based on how he stared at his shoes and hadn't bothered to put his hair up in a cowlick. Upon crossing the threshold of the bar, the barkeep gave Lucas a strange look but ultimately returned to wiping down the counter.

The young psychic eyed the arcade cabinets on the left and made his way over. He chose the machine in the middle, some wild west game where the player uses a plastic gun instead of a joystick. The synthetic voice spat some indistinct instructions and Lucas was shooting bank robbers and other random outlaws. A few quarters later, the blond had the high score: 55,760,020 points.

"Great job," a sweet voice praised from behind the young psychic. Lucas had to do a double-take, it was Princess Zelda. "Hello, Luke," the princess greeted.

"What brings you here?" Lucas asked, popping a quarter into the machine to his right. This game was Space Invaders.

"You weren't at your house so I did some asking around. I'm sorry I wasn't here yesterday," she apologized. The blond felt a pang in his heart, the pain of loss still fresh. Lucas stopped playing the games altogether.

"No one even showed up, I kept hoping that somebody would've come to at least see him off," Lucas sighed. "It was just me and the priest," he explained. Lucas had memories of two other funerals: His mother, Hinawa, and his twin brother, Claus. Snake even reminded the young psychic of his father, Flint, which made the loss even more devastating.

Zelda placed a hand on the blond's shoulder, trying to comfort him. "Can I... go see him?" she asked hesitantly. Lucas rubbed his temples and sighed. He looked the princess dead in he eye, tears forming but never falling, and nodded.

Lucas tipped the barkeep on his way out, to which the man simply shrugged and pocketed the money. He and Zelda were walking side-by-side, which revealed Lucas had grown to be the princess' height, and in an effort to make things less awkward, the psychic attempted to make small talk.

"So, how's Link doing?" the blond tried to ask casually. He was fidgeting with his hair to get it in the iconic cowlick he was known for. Doing that without a brush wasn't easy but he managed to style it after a good minute. That's when he realized Zelda hadn't answered his question. The blond turned to see the brunette had slowed down considerably. "What's wrong?" Lucas called out.

"Nothing, I haven't seen Link in a few years so I didn't know what to say," the princess answered. That threw Lucas for a loop. Link and Zelda seemed to be inseparable back at Smash, now he hears it's been years since they've seen one another.

"Sorry I brought it up," Lucas apologized, scratching the back of his head.

"Don't worry about it, I'm already over it," Zelda reassured the blond. Another awkward silence washed over he two.

During the time at Smash, Lucas and Zelda rarely interacted with one another. Lucas' friends and Zelda's never meshed and they never talked to each other. As far as they know, they have nothing in common aside from Smash. It was painful for them both to be stuck walking with someone they simultaneously know and don't know.

Zelda and Snake knew each other, and they were even friends for much of the tournament. Eventually Snake's reclusive nature left him with little to no friends whatsoever. That's all Lucas knew, and that's why he figured Zelda came to visit, albeit a little late. He also figured Snake's lack of friends by the end was why no one attended the ceremony yesterday. Now Lucas has some small hope that some stragglers were at least on their way.

"How did he... you know?" Zelda asked hesitantly.

"Turns out he was based off of a clone. Clones tend to age much faster than normal humans do, kinda close to how a dog ages," Lucas started to explain. He trailed off, Zelda could definitely put the pieces together. Snake had died simply of old age, nothing more.

The cemetery was dull and gloomy, just as one would expect. Snake's grave was clearly fresh as the grass hadn't even begun to grow over the soil that lay on his casket. Zelda looked at the stone with his name engraved on it. Lucas couldn't look at it, he was already emotionally drained as it was. He couldn't even look at Zelda, who he heard sniffle.

"Come on, please don't cry, because then I'm gonna cry," Lucas requested. In an attempt to comfort the brunette, Lucas wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her close, it was all the blond could do. Zelda wiped her eyes, trying her best not to full out cry, and leaned into Lucas, allowing him to hold her better.

"Thank you, Lucas," Zelda said, her voice indicating how close she was to crying.

"Don't mention it," Lucas sighed, giving her a reassuring squeeze. "It means a lot to me for you to be here," the psychic admitted.

*** … *** … *** … ***

When noon rolled around Lucas was showing Zelda around his apartment. It was a two bedroom one bath, the living room and kitchen were one in the same, and it was on the third floor of the complex. The living room had a tan couch and matching chair (Snake's personal chair that Lucas would occasionally sit in when he knew Snake wouldn't catch him),several pictures ranging from before and after Smash was abolished hung from the walls, and lastly a coffee able in the center with an ashtray. The kitchen had all the essentials: a fridge, a sink, an oven, a stove, and cabinets stuffed with junk foods. Lucas even showed her the bathroom, which had had everything you'd expect to find.

The two bedrooms were directly across from one another, both had signs on the door. Lucas explained that Zelda would be spending the night in his room while he slept in Snake's.

Lucas' room was pretty plain. The walls were painted a sky blue with sunflowers carefully painted to make it look like the room existed in the midst of a sunflower field. His bed was meant for one and had dark blue sheets. His dresser had a lone alarm clock and a picture of the young blond with all his friends from Smash. Lucas was off to the right in the picture next to Red the pokemon trainer. Toon Link was in the middle with Ness to his left and Billy the villager on the way left.

Snake's room was a bit more dull with bland gray walls. His bed was queen-sized with black sheets. There were packed boxes that littered the room, most likely filled with the mercenary's old belongings. Lucas had the gut feeling that sleeping in this room would be more difficult than he'd like but he tried not to let on.

"Are you sure it's alright for me to take your room tonight?" Zelda inquired, feeling a little guilty about putting her host in this situation out of the blue. Lucas shrugged it off.

"Where else would you sleep? You said it yourself, you don't have anywhere to stay," Lucas argued, as he grabbed a set of clothes to wear tomorrow from his room. "You can stay as long as you want to, I'd be awfully lonely if you didn't," Lucas continued. "Uh, speaking of which, how long where you going to stay?" Lucas asked, trying to get her attention off of what he'd just said.

"Probably a few days," she answered, getting closer to him before adding, "Can't have little Luke feeling lonely now can we?" Zelda began to giggle when the blond went beet red at her last comment. He was stuttering trying to explain himself but she couldn't hear him over her giggling. "I'll be here until you're ready for me to be gone," she explained.

After spending a few hours with each other, Lucas and Zelda realized how well they could get along. They shared stories from their time at Smash and even told of their original journeys. Lucas was careful to leave out the depressing bits and Zelda probably did the same.

"Hold on just a sec," Lucas instructed the princess while he retreated to his room. When he returned, Lucas was holding a bass guitar in his hands. When Master Hand created Lucas, he gave Lucas skills from the real Lucas' friends: Kumatora's offensive PSI and even Duster's fighting style. Another gift from Duster that Lucas got was the ability to play bass guitar.

Lucas decided to play a cover of the Song of Storms on his guitar. He knew she loved it whenever Link would play his ocarina for her, and part of him loved to play the guitar for an audience. After he finished Zelda applauded him, a genuine smile crossing her delicate face.

He switched it up and played a song from his memories of Tazmily. He played the first song he'd ever heard the band DMC play. Back when Duster was Lucky and wore that ridiculous Afro, the memory wasn't really Lucas' but he still remembered that leg of the journey fondly. Lucas added the percussion from the song by tapping his feet on the floor. He hummed he saxophone bits. And of course he strummed out the bass guitar and regular guitar parts in intervals, keeping to the beat and making the switch between the two seem seamless. What ended up being omitted from Lucas' version was the synthesizer, he couldn't think of a way to include it.

At first the psychic thought he must have looked absolutely stupid stomping his feet and swaying to the beat of the song. When he finished Zelda was absolutely speechless. That's when Lucas went red, he thought he had just embarassed himself.

"That was incredible!" the brunette praised. Lucas let out a nervous laugh as he felt his cheeks flush even more. "How did you do that? I've never seen anyone play three parts of a song at once!" she admitted, obviously impressed.

"Well, actually it was four parts," Lucas admitted. Zelda's jaw dropped even further at that. "That song had a bass and a lead guitar so I played both," the blond boasted, getting the sense that acting humble wasn't exactly necessary. "I'm actually surprised I got that to work so perfectly on the first try," he continued.

"Okay, quit bragging, it doesn't suit you," Zelda laughed, playfully punching Lucas in the shoulder. "So what else do you do around here for fun?" she asked as soon as she stopped laughing.

"Well there's the theater, the park, the carnival that comes out every summer, and the pub," Lucas listed off all the places in town he could think of off the top of his head. He could tell the princess had gears turning in her head, trying to think of which would be the best place to go. "Then there's _that_ place," Lucas added, piquing the brunette's interest.

It had turned into the twilight hours by the time Lucas had brought Zelda to he place he so vaguely told her about. A lone tree, larger than life, had grown precariously on the edge of a cliff overlooking the city. One of Lucas' favorite things to do was to watch the town slowly lose its activity. Citizens would turn in one-by-one, each light in town going out almost at once as the sun finally set. With no unnatural light exuding from town, one could see all the stars in the sky. This is what Lucas brought Zelda out to see. It was quite the sight, the outline of a small town and the galaxy popping out from behind it all. The first time Lucas ever saw it, the sight frightened him, now he felt the most comfortable when looking at it. Zelda was stunned, the brunette leaned against the tree while staring at the scene before her.

"It's like this every once in a while, typically a few bozos here and there won't turn the lights off and you don't get the full effect," Lucas explained, stepping closer to the trembling princess. "Sit down, I know how overwhelming it can be," he said, sitting down at the base of the tree and patting the space next to him for Zelda to sit there. She complied and Lucas, like he had earlier, wrapped his arm around her shoulder to pull closer and comfort her. "I come out here when I'm feeling down," Lucas explained. "I sat here for hours last night, drunk, and cursing everybody out," the blond admitted, slightly ashamed of what he had said the night before.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner," Zelda apologized, turning her head to look into his eyes. They were cloudy, like they were this morning, on the verge of tears but never going any further than that.

"I think I can forgive everybody," the psychic sighed, shaking a little. "I mean you came out here, even if you were a day late. Who's to say the others aren't on their way? Maybe some of them never got the news, you never know," the blond babbled on. Zelda nodded in agreement before returning her attention to the stars.

"It's so beautiful," she commented.

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 **A/N: Well, what did ya think? I got stuck every once in awhile but I got the plot moving along. I'm thinking of making a series out of this, I mean what happened to everyone else? If you have any ideas as to what could have happened to other smashers or you got some _constructive_ criticisms, leave it in a review. **

**Either way, I hope you have a wonderful day. Bye!**


End file.
